The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for monitoring an application process. In particular, the present invention relates to monitoring the constituent components of an application and responding to failures in the operation thereof.
Typically, a computer system/computer has an operating system, and a computer application is instantiated on the computer in the form of one or more application processes running in a work space managed by the operating system. This is especially true with regards to large and/or complex applications, such as an application for managing one or more aspects of a factory, for controlling environmental conditions in a large building, for controlling power generation in a power facility, etc.
For any of a variety of reasons, an application process can fail. For example, an application process can fail if a needed resource is not available, if an expected piece of information is missing, or if an impermissible operation is performed, among other things. While such a failure does not necessarily cause the entire application to fail immediately, such failure of such entire application is likely to be inevitable.
As should be evident, failure of an entire application can be annoying to a system operator to say the least, and can cause critical and even fatal damage to say the most. In the most benign situation, a computer operator must somehow be informed that the application has failed and then must re-start the application on the computer. Of course, if the operator must be summoned at an inopportune hour, and/or if the operator must travel a relatively long distance to an appropriate location to command the re-start, even the most benign situation can become very costly and/or highly troublesome. In the most ominous situation, the failure of the application can lead to loss of life, if for example the application controls medical equipment in a hospital; loss of property, if for example the application controls environmental equipment in a sensitive location; and/or other dangerous situations.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method and apparatus for monitoring the application processes that comprise an application running on an operating system, and for automatically attempting to address the failure of an application process before such failure causes the failure of the entire application.
In the present invention, a computer system has a memory, an operating system, and a computer application instantiated in a work space in the memory as managed by the operating system. The application includes a plurality of application processes running in the work space. An application monitor monitors whether each of the plurality of application processes is in fact running, and automatically attempts to remedy an occurrence where any of the plurality of application processes is not in fact running.